2024-25 CBS Sports All-America teams: College basketball’s best and most talented players

Auburn’s Johni Broome, Duke’s Cooper Flagg and Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. have been voted unanimous 2025 CBS Sports First Team All-Americans. Purdue’s Braden Smith and Texas Tech’s JT Toppin rounded out the First Team that was determined by a panel of CBS Sports writers and analysts

Votes were submitted Monday.

That means all games players appeared in from the start of the season through the Elite Eight of the 2025 NCAA Tournament were considered. We do it this way to allow for as much data as possible to influence decisions.

Each of the five CBS Sports First Team All-Americans was in the top 40 of CBS Sports’ list of the Top 100 And 1 college basketball players back in October. So there are no out-of-nowhere surprises here — especially when it comes to Broome and Flagg. Those two have been neck-and-neck in the National Player of the Year race basically all season and were always headed for First Team All-America honors. Clayton joined them as a unanimous selection thanks to Florida entering the Final Four on a 10-game winning streak featuring victories over Alabama (twice), Tennessee, Maryland, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Missouri and UConn.

Framed another way, the CBS Sports First Team All-Americans are the ACC POY (Flagg), the Big Ten POY (Smith), the Big 12 POY (Toppin), the SEC POY (Broome) and the person who was the de facto runner-up for SEC POY (Clayton). Of the 15 players on the three CBS Sports All-America teams, four each come from the SEC and Big East, three come from the Big Ten, two come from the Big 12 — and the ACC and AAC had one apiece.

2024-25 CBS Sports All-America First Team

Cooper Flagg | Duke | G/F | 6-9 | Freshman (u)

Flagg met the hype of his No. 1 overall prospect rating and then some while leading Duke to an ACC title, No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and Final Four appearance. The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 19.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.4 steals and was also good enough to earn ACC all-defense honors. 

Not since Zion Williamson starred for Duke six years ago has a freshman made such an impact in college. That he did at a time when the college game is older than ever was particularly stunning, especially since he didn’t turn 18 until late December. — David Cobb 

Johni Broome | Auburn | F/C | 6-10 | Senior (u)

Broome keyed Auburn’s run to an SEC title, as his two-way dominance helped the Tigers emerge as the winner of arguably the greatest league in college basketball history. Broome averaged 18.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.1 blocks for a team that spent eight straight weeks at No. 1 in the AP poll. 

Even a midseason ankle injury and a handful of other injury scares couldn’t derail the 6-foot-10 center, who enters the Final Four with 21 double-doubles. — DC 

Walter Clayton Jr. | Florida | G | 6-2 | Senior (u)

Clayton was spectacular all season, but he saved his best for last while leading Florida to an SEC Tournament title and Final Four. Over seven postseason games, he is averaging 21.6 points on 47.4% 3-point shooting. 

The former Iona star was particularly clutch from beyond the arc in NCAA Tournament victories over UConn and Texas Tech as he carried the Gators to their first national semifinal appearance since 2014. His fearless leadership and shot-making were unmatched by any guard in college basketball. — DC

JT Toppin | Texas Tech | F | 6-9 | Sophomore

Toppin took his game to unimaginable heights as a sophomore at Texas Tech after shining as a freshman at New Mexico. Despite entering a tougher league and logging just 27.2 minutes per game, the 6-foot-9 post threat was regularly the best player on the floor for a Red Raiders team that reached the Elite Eight.

He averaged 18.2 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks for the season and turned it up even more down the stretch. Toppin averaged 22.3 points over Texas Tech’s final 15 games. — DC

Braden Smith | Purdue | G | 6-0 | Junior

Smith made life without two-time Player of the Year Zach Edey smoother than it should have been for a Purdue team that came within one possession of beating Houston in the Sweet 16. He ranked second nationally in assists per game at 8.7 while elevating his offensive game to new heights as a junior. 

Smith shot 38.1% from 3-point range and regularly hounded opponents defensively while racking up 2.2 steals per game, which was second in the Big Ten. In terms of pure floor generals, Smith was unmatched, especially when you consider the offensive punch he provided. — DC

u – unanimous selection

2024-25 CBS Sports All-America Second Team

John Tonje | Wisconsin | G | 6-5 | Graduate

From an injury-shortened 2023-24 season with Missouri where he averaged 2.6 points per game to this with Wisconsin in 2024-25: 19.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting 38.8% from 3-point range. Tonje was among the most surprising breakout stories in college hoops this season leading a Badgers team that won its fifth-most games in a single-season (27) in an offense that was the fourth-highest scoring in the Big Ten. 

Tonje was the fourth-leading scorer in the Big Ten and the key that unlocked Wisconsin’s most fun offense since the 2014-15 national-runner-up team under Bo Ryan. He led the team as a 91% free-throw shooter on the No. 1 free throw shooting team in the sport and rated No. 1 on Wisconsin in on/off splits defensively to boot, per EvanMiya.com data. A true two-way star who elevated everything the Badgers did this season. — Kyle Boone

Mark Sears | Alabama | G | 6-1 | Graduate

Alabama had the highest-scoring offense in college hoops for a second consecutive year behind Sears’ second-straight All-American season. Sears’ production took a small step back from last year when he led the Tide to the Final Four but he was still nothing short of irreplaceable in Nate Oats’ run-and-gun offense, which also led the country in adjusted tempo.

Sears averaged 18.6 points and a career-high 5.1 assists per game for Alabama and found ways to wow in big moments, like he did with his 34-point explosion vs. BYU in the Sweet 16 where he helped knock down 10 of an NCAA Tournament-record 25 3-pointers in the win. He was the catalyst for the most explosive offensive team in the sport and one of the most crucial common denominators in the most successful three-year stints in program history. — KB

Kam Jones | Marquette | G | 6-5 | Senior

Jones had a career year for Marquette setting career-highs in points, assists, steals, rebounds and minutes per game. With Tyler Kolek off to the NBA, he flourished on the ball for the Golden Eagles averaging 19.2 points, 5.9 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game, finishing second in both scoring and assists among all Big East players.

Marquette benefited by his boost in production to boot. With the second-highest usage rate in the conference, the Golden Eagles had the lowest turnover rate in the Big East and had top-40 national units on both offense and defense. His production led him to 5.8 Win Shares on the season, highest among all guards in the Big East and fifth-highest among all guards in major conferences. — KB   

Ryan Kalkbrenner | Creighton | C | 7-1 | Senior 

 Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Kalkbrenner was a game-changing defensive player who won Defensive Player of the Year honors in the Big East.

If that feels like déjà vu it should: It’s the fourth time he’s taken home the award, and deservedly so. He led the Big East in Win Shares and in Box Plus/Minus and posted career-highs in points, rebounds, blocks and assists per game, averaging 19.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and 1.5 assists. There was arguably no player in college hoops critical to his team’s success  — both this year and the last couple of years — than Kalkbrenner was to Creighton. An all-time defensive player for an all-time Creighton star. — KB   

PJ Haggerty | Memphis | G | 6-3 | Redshirt sophomore

Memphis won 29 games this season under Penny Hardaway, the most since he took over the program in 2018, behind a banner season from a first-year transfer from Tulsa in Haggerty. Haggerty led the AAC in scoring and was third in college basketball on a points-per-game basis at 21.7, a career-high, while boasting the second-highest usage rate in the AAC. He played and started in all 35 games for the Tigers and logged a whopping 1,282 minutes — most in the AAC. — KB

2024-25 CBS Sports All-America Third Team

Eric Dixon | Villanova | F | 6-8 | Graduate

It’s a shame Villanova did not make the NCAA Tournament because it puts a slight black mark on one of the best individual seasons college basketball has ever seen. Dixon was utterly tremendous. He led the sport in scoring (23.0 points). No forward made more triples than Dixon (94). Dixon’s parking-lot range and bully-ball strength made him utterly unguardable. — Isaac Trotter

LJ Cryer | Houston | G | 6-1 | Graduate

Cryer has solidified himself as one of the best shooters in the country. For the second-straight season, Cryer cracked triple digit treys. He enters the Final Four with the 54th-most 3-pointers in college basketball history (373). — IT

RJ Luis Jr | St. John’s | G/F | Junior

Luis’ breakout junior season fueled St. John’s to a revival of sorts under Rick Pitino. The sturdy wing was one of the best two-way players in the sport, and he was a complete freight train in transition. — IT

Why timing and money—not Rick Pitino’s choice to bench him—drove RJ Luis from St. John’s to transfer portal

Isaac Trotter

Trey Kaufman-Renn | Purdue | F | Junior

Kaufman-Renn delivered one of the best individual seasons in Purdue basketball history filling in for two-time national player of the year Zach Edey. He averaged over 20 points per game while only draining three 3-pointers all year. His synergy in pick-and-rolls with Braden Smith was next-level stuff, and Kaufman-Renn owned one of the most automatic floaters in the game.  — IT

Zakai Zeigler | Tennessee | G | 5-9 | Senior

Zeigler came to Knoxville as an undersized, overlooked recruit and transformed into a Tennessee legend. He supplied fierce on-ball defense while notching the highest assist rate in the SEC. Zeigler was the emotional leader of a Tennessee club that made the Elite Eight for the second year in a row. He wasn’t scared of anybody. — IT